According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it's "presumably from the practice, in counting sheep or large herds of cattle, of counting orally from 1 to 20, and making a score or notch on a stick, before proceeding to count the next 20." The first citation for that use of the word score in the OED is in the year 1100.
£20 is sometimes referred to as a "score", although strictly this is not a slang term for money, as 'score' is a normal word for twenty. £20 is sometimes known as a "Bobby" from Bobby Moore (rhymes with score).
score (n.) late Old English scoru "twenty," from Old Norse skor "mark, notch, incision; a rift in rock," also, in Icelandic, "twenty," from Proto-Germanic *skur-, from PIE root *sker- (1) "to cut." The notion probably is of counting large numbers (of a passing flock of sheep, etc.)
A score is 20 years. Four score means 80 years. Four score and seven years ago means 87 years ago.
A 'score' is a group of 20 (often used in combination with a cardinal number, i.e. fourscore to mean 80), but also often used as an indefinite number (e.g. the newspaper headline "Scores of Typhoon Survivors Flown to Manila").
The days of our years are threescore years and ten; And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, Yet is their strength labour and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.
four·score ˈfōr-ˈskō(ə)r. ˈfȯr-ˈskȯ(ə)r. : being four times twenty : eighty.
nounplural -ies. a period of 50 years: during the past half-century. a score or grouping of 50: a half-century of points. (as modifier): as I near the half-century mark.
In the days that this expression was coined that span was considered to be seventy years. Threescore used to be used for sixty, in the way that we still use a dozen for twelve, and (occasionally) score for twenty. The use of threescore as a name for sixty has long since died out but is still remembered in this phrase.
A player gets a hat-trick when they score three goals in one game, but the use of the term actually didn't start on the football pitch. The phrase came from cricket, and was used when a bowler took three wickets from three consecutive balls.
[ I ] slang. to have sex with someone that you have usually just met: Did you score last night, then? SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases.
Four score and seven years ago ...
One “score” is 20, so “four score and seven” means 87 years. This is a reference to the Continental Congress adopting the language of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 – 87 years, 4 months, and 16 days before Lincoln gave his famous speech.
In criminal, or prison, slang dating from the nineteenth century, the term 'carpet stretch' meant three months' imprisonment; three months was reputedly the length of time required by an inmate to to weave a carpet or mat for his cell in the prison workshop.
Why do Cockneys call 25 a pony? Whilst this is not cemented in fact, the widely held belief is that the terms came from soldiers returning to Britain from India. Old Indian rupee banknotes had animals on them and it is said that the 500 rupee note had a monkey on it and the 25 rupee featured a pony.
The British empire's control of India led to a number of phrases making their way across from the Raj to our shores, with a 'monkey' perhaps the most famous. Referring to £500, this term is derived from the Indian 500 Rupee note of that era, which featured a monkey on one side.
Lincoln mentions that “a new nation” was created “four score and seven years ago.” Since “score” means 20, four score is 80. Four score and seven years is, therefore, 80 and 7 years, which is 87 years. Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address November 19, 1863, 87 years after independence in 1776.
If you refer to scores of things or people, you are emphasizing that there are very many of them. You can also use scores as a pronoun. Two people were killed and scores were injured. A score is twenty or approximately twenty.
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address begins with the words, “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” A score is another way of saying 20, so Lincoln was referring to 1776, which was 87 ...
A decade (from Ancient Greek δεκάς (dekas) 'a group of ten') is a period of ten years. Decades may describe any ten-year period, such as those of a person's life, or refer to specific groupings of calendar years.
A centenary is the hundredth anniversary of some event. When your great grandfather turns 100, his birthday party will be the centenary of his birth. If your town is celebrating its centenary, that means it's exactly 100 years old.
A person between 60 and 69 is called a sexagenarian. A person between 70 and 79 is called a septuagenarian. A person between 80 and 89 is called an octogenarian. A person between 90 and 99 is called a nonagenarian. A person between 100 and 109 is called a centenarian.
Put Off The Old (4:22) The first picture given to us is that we are to put away our former way of life, the old self. The Greek word that the English translations render “put off” is a word that is used for setting aside clothing.
And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.
John 4:52 In-Context
52 When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.” 53 Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed.